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Fri, Sep 29, 2023
8:00 pm

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Tickets*:  $25-$65 available at www.mccarter.org

*Princeton University Students can access FREE tickets with Passport to the Arts using code PUTIGER. Tickets must be booked ONLINE with student ID. More Info on PU Student Tix: www.mccarter.org/tigertix

PU Faculty and Staff 20% discount with code PUSTAFF24
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Group of people dancing in a dark room with spotlights
Olivier Tarpaga‘s humanist piece Once the Dust Settles Flowers Bloom is the first of three concerts in the Timbuktu Grooves Festival celebrating the vibrant sounds and rhythms of the African continent and its diaspora. The piece sheds light on refugees of Burkina Faso and the Sahel region, who were displaced after fleeing from the shadow of jihadists. Seven dancers and five musicians from Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Benin, Morocco and France will channel the strength and beauty of this displaced population. This performance will begin with a brief moderated conversation with Olivier Tarpaga.
This performance will begin with a brief moderated conversation with Olivier Tarpaga and Professor Nicole Myers Turner from the Department of Religion.
BONUS: Afrobeats After-Party! Join us for a post-show after-party at the McCarter Lobby, featuring drink specials, live DJ, and dancing!
The performance is in partnership with McCarter Theatre Center,  Seuls en Scène, Princeton French Theater Festival, and African World Initiative.

Olivier Tarpaga (USA/Burkina Faso) is a Lester Horton Award-winning choreographer/director of the African Music Ensembles of Princeton University. Tarpaga has performed and taught music and dance regularly in more than 50 countries throughout Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.

Since 1998, Tarpaga has composed and performed contemporary and traditional music and conceived dynamic dance theater works, touring internationally and the US with an impressive roster of collaborators and commissioning partners: including The Hollywood Bowl, the Ford Amphitheater (Los Angeles), The New Delhi Sacred Music Festival (India), The World Cultures Festival (Hong Kong), The Bali Spirit Festival (Indonesia), Festival de Jazz d’Amiens (France), Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh), Harlem Stage, The Joyce Theater, REDCAT, Crossing the Line Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Action Danse Festival (Morocco), Charleroi Dance Biennale (Belgium), Natanda Dance Festival (Sri Lanka), The Drama Center (Singapore), and Session House (Tokyo).

Tarpaga’s music and dance works have been described as “unforgettable” by Los Angeles Times and “extraordinary” by the New York Times. His major works include Once the dust settles, flowers bloom (2023), When Birds Refused to Fly (2019), Declassified Memory Fragment (2015), Not Because You’re African (2010), Disorder Inside Order (2008), Sira Kan (2007), and Tin Suka (2001). His commissioned works include Only One Will Rise (2022) for the Limon Company, Wind of Nomads (2017) for Malaysia’s internationally renowned HANDS Percussion, Resist-Resurge: Traces of Hope for Maya Dance Theater of Singapore, and The way of sands (2012) for the Temple of Fine Arts in Perth, Australia.


An independent not-for-profit performing arts center located between New York City and Philadelphia—and on the campus of Princeton University—McCarter is a multi-disciplinary creative and intellectual hub offering theater, music, dance, spoken word, and educational programs for all ages that inspires conversations, connections and collaborations in our communities. We lead with our values of justice and joy, and we seek beauty in belonging. Celebrated for developing new work and winner of the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, world premieres include Christopher Durang’s Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike (Tony, Best Play), Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays, Emily Mann’s Having Our Say. Renowned artists who have appeared at McCarter include: Alvin Ailey, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, David Sedaris, The Moth, Terence Blanchard, Roseanne Cash, the rock band Lake Street Dive, Shawn Colvin, and more. McCarter connects with the community year-round via various community reading event opportunities, digital programming, on-site classes and in-school residencies. McCarter and Princeton University share a long history of unique partnerships and creative collaborations. www.mccarter.org


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Olivier Tarpaga (USA/Burkina Faso) is a Lester Horton Award-winning choreographer/director of the African Music Ensembles of Princeton University. Tarpaga has performed and taught music and dance regularly in more than 50 countries throughout Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.

Since 1998, Tarpaga has composed and performed contemporary and traditional music and conceived dynamic dance theater works, touring internationally and the US with an impressive roster of collaborators and commissioning partners: including The Hollywood Bowl, the Ford Amphitheater (Los Angeles), The New Delhi Sacred Music Festival (India), The World Cultures Festival (Hong Kong), The Bali Spirit Festival (Indonesia), Festival de Jazz d’Amiens (France), Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh), Harlem Stage, The Joyce Theater, REDCAT, Crossing the Line Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Action Danse Festival (Morocco), Charleroi Dance Biennale (Belgium), Natanda Dance Festival (Sri Lanka), The Drama Center (Singapore), and Session House (Tokyo).

Tarpaga’s music and dance works have been described as “unforgettable” by Los Angeles Times and “extraordinary” by the New York Times. His major works include Once the dust settles, flowers bloom (2023), When Birds Refused to Fly (2019), Declassified Memory Fragment (2015), Not Because You’re African (2010), Disorder Inside Order (2008), Sira Kan (2007), and Tin Suka (2001). His commissioned works include Only One Will Rise (2022) for the Limon Company, Wind of Nomads (2017) for Malaysia’s internationally renowned HANDS Percussion, Resist-Resurge: Traces of Hope for Maya Dance Theater of Singapore, and The way of sands (2012) for the Temple of Fine Arts in Perth, Australia.


An independent not-for-profit performing arts center located between New York City and Philadelphia—and on the campus of Princeton University—McCarter is a multi-disciplinary creative and intellectual hub offering theater, music, dance, spoken word, and educational programs for all ages that inspires conversations, connections and collaborations in our communities. We lead with our values of justice and joy, and we seek beauty in belonging. Celebrated for developing new work and winner of the 1994 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, world premieres include Christopher Durang’s Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike (Tony, Best Play), Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays, Emily Mann’s Having Our Say. Renowned artists who have appeared at McCarter include: Alvin Ailey, Yo-Yo Ma, Audra McDonald, David Sedaris, The Moth, Terence Blanchard, Roseanne Cash, the rock band Lake Street Dive, Shawn Colvin, and more. McCarter connects with the community year-round via various community reading event opportunities, digital programming, on-site classes and in-school residencies. McCarter and Princeton University share a long history of unique partnerships and creative collaborations. www.mccarter.org


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